SC seeks NAB response on Dr Asim's plea for removal of travel restrictions

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to respond to a petition filed by PPP leader Dr Asim Hussain seeking to strike his name off the Exit Control List (ECL).

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam directed the NAB to file its response to the petition by Nov 16.

Barrister Latif Khosa, representing the PPP leader, said that Dr Asim wanted to travel abroad for treatment. He is scheduled to leave the country on Nov 21 in connection with treatment.

The counsel recalled that the court had earlier allowed his client for treatment abroad for a month. Subsequently, he went abroad and returned within a month in compliance with its order, he added.

He, thus, pleaded with the court to order the authorities concerned to remove Dr Asim’s name from the no-fly list.

The PPP leader’s name had been on the ECL since November 2015 when corruption references were filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Earlier, he had petitioned the Sindh High Court to have travel restrictions on him removed so that he could undergo disc replacement surgery in London as he had maintained that the treatment of such an ailment was not possible in Pakistan. But, it rejected his plea.

Subsequently, he approached the apex court seeking removal of his name from the ECL.

The former petroleum minister has been accused of misusing his powers by getting plots allotted fraudulently, encroaching state land for expansion of Dr. Ziauddin Hospital/ money laundering, kickbacks, illegal gains, receiving commission through fertiliser cartel for illegal curtailment of gas for exploitative price and defrauding people in the name of charity hospital.

He had deprived the public exchequer of Rs 462 billion, according to a NAB reference.